Godin 5th Avenue Archtop Jazz-Style Acoustic Guitar (Black)

This guitar was amazing right out of the box. I was leery of buying a guitar on-line, sight-unseen primarily because I knew I would have to deal with setting it up myself. My first surprise was the guitar was nearly in tune already! I fine-tuned it and checked the intonation of each string at the 12th fret using an electronic tuner. Every string was perfect. The action and neck relief were already set just to my liking (there's plenty of differnce in personal preference on this point, but it was clear that the person who made the adjustments cared about getting it right). In short, the guitar came out of the box ready to play.Pictures of this guitar do not do it justice. My cognac burst model is absolutely beautiful. Its lines and proportions speak elegance and many small details put it in a class with much more expensive guitars. The satin finish gives the guitar a very rich woody feel. The wild cherry of the body is boldly grained and the grain is enhanced with a subtle undercoat of dark pore-filler. The grain is bookmatched (identical on either side of the center line) on front, back and sides. The headstock shape is reminiscent of classic Gibsons but much narrower again adding to the elegance. The use of a 17 degree headstock angle (also reminiscent of classic Gibsons) provides for a strong break angle at the nut while contributing to the guitar's dramatic profile. The headstock's high-gloss black face is off-set by a narrow band of cream around the edge and a tortise-shell truss rod cover matching the pick guard. The neck is bolted on (a technique pioneered in high-end Taylor guitars) and "floats" where it meets the body allowing the top full freedom to vibrate. And the sound? Amazing! I have had the guitar for a month now and I can not get enough of playing it. I had thought I would use it for a few swing-type number I play with my band, but I am using it for everything. The tone is full and balanced and, as other reviews have said, "woody." The volume is amazing from such a compact box (only 3 inches deep). The projection and sustain are incredible, strongly developed upper partials add to the resonance, and the guitar is a canon when miked at the lower f-hole. I could go on, buy to keep it short I'll say this guitar is worth far, far more than I paid for it. I don't know how Godin did it but they've created a work of art that anyone can afford. Amazing! BTW this guitar fits perfectly in the Musicians Gear Deluxe Hardshell Dreadnaught case and it looks great in the tweed version which I bought.

Godin 5th Avenue Archtop Jazz-Style Acoustic Guitar (Cognac Burst)In my opinion, this is a pretty decent entry level archtop guitar. It is a full size guitar, with a 20'' body length and 16" lower bout. The reduced body depth, slightly over 3" at the deepest point, and light weight make it comfortable to play. Except for the head stock and tuners, the neck is pretty much the same as that used on Godin's slim neck Seagull acoustics. It floats clear of the body past the 15th fret, to allow the top to vibrate more freely. My guitar was finished in cognac burst, which does a nice job of highlighting the subtle grain of the laminated cherry body and silver maple neck.My guitar as received had two minor defects. There were two small indentations on the finger board at the 7th fret, which didn't affect the my ability to play the guitar. Overall, the fret work was pretty good, although the edges might have been smoother. The nut slot for the g string was cut too low, which gave dead sounding A notes when fretted at the second fret. Godin sent me a replacement Tusq PQ1728-00 nut, which I installed. Problem solved. My guitar, which was only 3 months old when I received it, initially didn't stay in tune very well. It has improved remarkably in that respect over the last 9 months .The action on my guitar was set reasonably low, but the intonation was a little off. I used an online calculator for archtop bridges at the Stewart MacDonald website to find the appropriate nut to center post distances by plugging in the scale length and number of frets. It works out to about 25 and 1/16" for the 6th E string, and 24 and 31/32" for the 1st E string. The bridge can be moved backwards or forwards as needed to tweak for flatness or sharpness. I also subsequently lowered the action and decreased the neck relief to make the guitar easier for me to play.Some people have complained about the stock Tusq bridge on this guitar. Personally, I think it's a pretty well engineered bridge with a decent sound. I compared this bridge with an aftermarket ebony bridge that I purchased from Stewart MacDonald. I believe that it's the same bridge that Tyler Mountain markets through Amazon. The difference in sound was fairly subtle, at least to my ears. The ebony bridge had perhaps a little more volume and projection, as well as slightly increased articulation and "woodiness" of tone. It does represent a fairly sizable investment if you have to pay someone to install it.The string gauge and type of string have a big impact on the sound of this guitar. I find 12-53 phosphor bronze strings to be too bright. I have tried a variety of strings, and pretty much settled on D'Addario EHR350 12-52 half round strings. I like the sound, both with finger picking and plectrum playing. They also seem to last longer than phosphor bronze. Some people also complain about tinny sound. At least part of this may be due to how near they are playing to the bridge, or the type of plectrum they are using. The closer to the neck you play, the more low frequency and mid range sounds are excited in the strings.If you want a version of this guitar with electric pickups, the Kingpin P90 and Kingpin II, with two pickups, are available. That's probably more cost effective and convenient than adding a floating humbucker pickup. As far as acoustic pickups go, I have used both a Shadow Electronics SH2000 and Myers flexible goose neck microphone pickup with this guitar. They sound pretty good when used with a DI box and acoustic guitar amplifier.If you want something that sounds and looks different than a conventional flat top acoustic guitar without spending a large sum of money, you might want to check out the Godin 5th Avenue. Gretsch and Loar also make comparable guitars in this price range. I have not had a chance to try them, and so cannot comment as to how they compare. I am pretty happy with my 5th Avenue, and use it now for most of my practice.

the guitar is beautiful everybody that looks at it thinks it's awesome unfortunately it sounds poor at best. It has a very flat tinny sound. I have have experimented with a variety of tunings and set up to make it sound... well to give it some life. It's just Flat and dead. Maybe if it had some built-in electronics you could probably fudge the sound but as an acoustic guitar it is flat. I don't know how anybody could give this guitar five stars or even four. I'm going to give this guitar away.

Love it, beautiful sound. I converted it to a lefty and you'd never know.